Sodium chloride (NaCl) is well known. While salt imparts a desirable taste and flavor to food, too much use can result in long term adverse health risks. Because of the proliferation of salt in prepared foods and other products found in a grocery store, many people exceed the average recommended daily intake. Exceeding the recommended daily intake of sodium is a significant risk factor in developing high blood pressure and a cause or contributing factor in the rising incidence of heart disease. As such, medical professionals and governmental authorities recommend a reduction in per capita salt consumption of from about 4000 mg per day to a level of about 2300 mg or less per day.
Dietary Guidelines issued in the U.S. in 2005 suggest a proposed consumption limit of 2300 mg of sodium per day and the National Academy of Science (NAS) even suggests 1500-2300 mg of sodium per day. Health advocates at the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control support changing the sodium limit to 1500 mg in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. The NAS also recommends a potassium consumption of 4,700 mg per day. Typically potassium consumption is less than half of that level.
Because of these and other reasons, there are a variety of salt substitutes in the market. The classical approach to the production of salt substitutes involves combining sodium and potassium salts, or occasionally magnesium salts, in various ratios, and adding a wide variety of other modifiers (i.e., additives, flavorants, and masking agents) to this mix. The other additives are generally added to mask or at least partially reduce the generally metallic/bitter taste of potassium that has generally been associated with salt substitutes containing potassium and even magnesium. The processing techniques used to make these products include, among others, simple blending, agglomeration, extrusion cooking, and the like. Literature concerning reduced sodium compositions includes U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2004/0047976 and 2012/0128830, U.S. Pat. No. 8,435,555, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP9173010, European Patent No. EP0090571, and PCT Application No. PCT/GB2010/050614, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0047976 discloses a granulated salt composition produced by mixing sodium chloride, potassium chloride, water and a flavor enhancer and granulating the resulting mass.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0128830 discloses low-sodium chloride compositions prepared by melting a mixture of sodium chloride and a non-sodium chloride and cooling the melted amalgamation to form a solid mass, which may be ground into smaller particles.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,989,016; 8,197,878; and 8,329,236 disclose the use of a wet process to make potassium chloride crystals that include a carrier and an acidulant for use as a salt substitute.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,435,555 discloses a salt product produced by mixing salt, a solvent (preferably water) and a polymeric organic material, and atomizing the mixture and evaporating the solvent. The resulting salt product can be in the form of hollow spheres formed from crystallites of salt.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP9173010 discloses food additives produced by placing sodium chloride and, e.g., potassium chloride in cavities in a ceramic plate, melting the mixture after dehydration, slowly cooling to room temperature and taking the solidified product out of the cavities of the ceramic plate to obtain the food additive having a size corresponding to the size of the cavity.
European Patent No. EP090571 discloses flakes comprising sodium chloride and potassium chloride produced by separately grinding sodium chloride and potassium chloride to form particles having a size of less than 70 mesh. The particles are admixed and compacted into flakes.
PCT Application No. PCT/GB2010/050614 discloses a reduced sodium composition which is produced by melting sodium chloride together with one or more sodium chloride substitutes, cooling the melt to form a solid, and grinding the solid.
Generally, the taste of salt substitute mixtures without sodium chloride is unsatisfactory, so that most mixtures contain at least a portion of sodium chloride. However, even mixtures containing a portion of sodium chloride produce either a distinct off flavor or an inadequate salt taste, especially when the amount is intended not to differ significantly from the comparable amount of sodium chloride. Taste, functionality and consumer acceptance, not to mention cost, are all challenges in developing low sodium salt compositions and, thus far, no suitable salt replacement exists for all applications.
Accordingly, the problem of finding compositions that have a comparable appearance as sodium chloride, taste sufficiently salty, do not have an off flavor, and function like sodium chloride, while at the same time permitting the sodium content to be reduced in an economically feasible manner, continues to exist.
There is thus a need for improved salt compositions, and methods of making such compositions, that have reduced sodium content while at the same time having an appearance comparable to that of sodium chloride, tasting sufficiently salty, not having an off flavor, and functioning like sodium chloride.